Personal Update

Re. my recent troubles, I’m very glad to say that as of this afternoon I’m in the clear. Many thanks to everyone who sent good wishes, encouragement, ideas etc.; I have a long memory for that kind of thing.  Very, very much appreciated.

Bloody hell, that was close though. One more day, and..

Did you all see this a couple of weeks ago?

Football Picture Quiz

For ten points, identify the link between this picture and League season 2003-4. Googling is permitted:

Picture courtesy of Miss Retro Modern

Intermission

Thanks to Liberty and Learning for this.

There will now be a short intermission. At least, I hope it’s short. The following will suffice to explain.

Back in a couple of weeks.

More Than Mind Games Meet-Up

When it happens - some time late in September, probably - it will have to be at the Salisbury, St Martin’s Lane.

Here’s why

Since 1892? We can’t let that go on, now, can we?

Thoughts on Sport, Football and Blogging

• This site has been an attempt in part to discover if there is a market, or an audience, for sports blogging/writing at the same level as exists for literature, science and history. I’ve come to the conclusion that there isn’t (MTMG has about 100 regular readers, who visit on average once per week, although the site itself has been very fortunate in the publicity it’s received from various quarters).
• Two kinds of football blog thrive: good team-linked blogs with plenty of interactivity, forums etc; and columist-gossip blogs like Football365 (who won’t thank me for the description). There might be an audience for an intellectual “Manchester United” blog, or an “Arsenal” one (there’s already a West Ham one more or less), but probably not much of an audience compared to the existing invitations to knuckle-drag.
• Writing about something is the best way to learn about it, but it’s also a good way of discovering if you really like it or not. I’ve come to look at sport psychology in much the same way as I look at Graham Kendrick. (N.B. I’m not a sport psychologist: I have, on the other hand, helped sports people with their psychological hurdles. Not the same thing. I hope my “About” page clarifies this).
• We’ve left our national game to the least intelligent, least thoughtful, least strategy-orientated, most superstitious, most hidebound, most class-obsessed, least outward-looking people in our society. At the same time, we claim that success is important to us whilst actually using the game as a holiday subject: a place to rest from thinking.
• When we do succeed in implementing change, and achieve success (the Rugby World Cup, the Ashes, England until Rooney’s injury in summer 2004) we are prone to discarding the change. Instead we attribute success to a set of national traits and traditional values that we don’t actually possess more than anyone else and that are irrelevant to sport in any case.
• Exaggerated machismo is a feature of many successful male sporting sides - Australia’s cricketers, for instance. But it seems to be an exclusively English trait to disassociate intelligence from that, to regard it with suspicion. Anyone using intelligence in the slightest way is likely to be partitioned off by the term “guru” and regarded thereafter as an amusing crank who can be safely ignored.
• I dare say you can tell where this is going, or might be going.

Post Ratings and Service Interruption

You can now rate posts on this site (at least, I think you can: I don’t want to go about rating myself, so I haven’t actually tested it out personally). This is in addition to some of the other recent alterations, which have allowed you to be emailed with any new comments on an individual post, preview your own comments, etc.)

Yesterday, the site was down for much of the day due to technical issues at the hosting company. Apologies.

I also note that Youtube have taken down large numbers of the Edwardian football clips, which will render some of the earlier posts nonsensical.

More Than Mind Games Meetup Wednesday 23rd May 2007

We’ll be meeting for the Champions League Final in the Cardinal near Victoria Station between 6.30 and kickoff at 7.45. The match should be on big screens, all being well. You can see a map here.

So that you know who to look for, here’s yours truly in football commentator mode:

I’ve slightly more hair than that now.. and I’ll be wearing a dark blue jacket, some kind of blue shirt, and jeans. If the pub proves to be packed with my doppelgangers, call xxxxx xxxxxx and I’ll tell you where to head for. Looking forward to meeting anyone who can make it.

More Than Mind Games Meetups

London: if anyone is interested in catching the Champions League Final on the evening of Wednesday 23rd May, please indicate in comments. My first thoughts as to location are (a) The Flask, Flask Walk, Hampstead; (b) The Cardinal, 23 St Francis Street (near Victoria Station) both of which should be showing the game. I don’t suppose there’s a great deal of point trying to get into the Sports Cafe on Haymarket on that particular evening.

If anyone is interested in meeting up in Cambridge, with the exception of May 23rd I will be working there every Wednesday for the forseeable future. The only decent pub in Cambridge is the Eagle, which is notably short on televisions, but it’s a great place for a friendly argument or two.

In passing, and not sport-related, I’m pleased to be able to say that my central London practice is finally opening at the end of the month. On Monday evenings initially, I’ll be working from a beautiful, quietly triple-glazed office in Warren Court, Euston Road (situated on top of Warren Street Underground station) handy for the Wellcome Institute, the British Library, University College Hospital etc. and within ten minutes of practically every major railway terminus.

Comments

You can now tick a box and have replies to comments on posts here emailed to you.

Two New Links

Two fresh and welcome additions to the blogroll: The Sixth Day is for Football is a new project covering historical and sociological sides to football, whilst Just Like My Dreams is that rarest of things, a worthwhile team fan blog. It’s a West Ham blog, moreover, and, IMHO, shows how this kind of thing should be done.